The Father And The Daughter
by That Was Real Subtle Bentley
Summary: "This place is a deathtrap and I have my daughter strapped to my back. Angela's going to kill me..." Mom's at work, and Ratchet is on baby duty. But when a new series of MegaCorp Security Robots go berserk in the Bogan Galaxy, Ratchet is the only one who can help. Will Ratchet be able to stop it with a toddler in tow? Sequel to Reflection.
1. Fun While It Lasted

**_The Father And The Daughter_** **\- Chapter 1, Fun While It Lasted  
**

* * *

Today was the greatest day of Ratchet's life. It was the by far the most humbling experience of his short twenty-three years. He was terrified, yet also felt a strange sense of calm within him. He was unsure whether he was ready for this, yet knew he was, and that he would never be any more prepared than he was right now. He was struggling to make sense of what was happening as he felt his hand being crushed to paste, Angela's screams of agony ringing in his ears, all while the smell of disinfectant was suffocating him with its sharp, antiseptic scent.

And then, just like that, it all stopped, and was replaced by the sound of a crying baby. In a daydream-like state, he watched a nurse wrap up the tiny lombax in blankets, and then handed to his wife of less than two years, Angela Cross. She looked exhausted, her face gaunt with pain. Her curly hair was an unruly mess, with a few strands sticking to her forehead, which was slick with sweat. As she took the baby, which was now settling down, she looked at its delicate features. Its eyes were closed, its small ears were folded back, it had the tiniest nose, and a small, unruly tuft of fur on its head. Upon Angela's first glance, she instantly fell in love with the tiny creature. The last thirteen hours of sheer agony had been worth it.

She looked up at Ratchet, with a small smile, which lit her up her entire face. "Do you want to hold her?" she asked quietly, her voice hoarse from the screaming.

"Of course I do," he replied, returning the smile. He walked over to the window of the hospital room, grabbed a chair, and brought it across to Angela's bedside. He sat himself down and outstretched his arms to receive the baby from Angela. Being passed from one parent to another disturbed the baby lombax, who gurgled slightly, before settling down again. Ratchet peered into the bundle of blankets and inhaled sharply. "She really is cute," he whispered, unable to control the wave of sheer adoration that crept into his chest.

"She definitely takes after me then," Angela returned wearily as she watched the new father with their daughter, her spirit still strong. He was so gentle with the way he handled her. He automatically supported her head with his hand, while cradling the rest of her body in his free arm. She found it reassuring to see that he was a natural. She, on the other hand, found handling children a little trickier. She was grateful that no one had noticed that she had very nearly dropped the child moments ago, a single, shameful moment that she, under no circumstances, would divulge to anyone else. It was a secret she would take to her grave.

As Ratchet peered back to the blanket bundle, he saw the little baby slowly open her eyes, which were a sparkling, vibrant emerald-green: her father's.

The new parents gazed adoringly at each other. Struggling slightly, Angela sat up and leaned across to peck Ratchet on the lips, the pair lingering in the kiss longer than she had originally anticipated. As the broke away, they both shared a look that said, _Things are great_. They both knew that things from now on would be wonderful.

* * *

They hadn't slept properly in months, and it was far from wonderful. Lorna typically woke up every few hours, much to her parents' frustration.

"You get her," Angela mumbled sleepily, "I did it last time." And with that, she turned over. They'd agreed long before the baby was born that they would alternate getting up during the night, a system which prevented many, many arguments.

Ratchet felt his eyes burning from the lack of sleep, and his ears were ringing from the harsh bawl of his daughter, which was a sound he was all too familiar with now. With a groan, he hoisted himself up and got out of bed. He wandered over to her crib by the window of the bedroom, and peered in. The poor little lombax was clearly upset, her face screwed up as she screamed at the top of her tiny lungs. It amazed Ratchet how so much noise came from such a small creature.

"Come on little lady," he said soothingly as he scooped her up. "What's the problem?"

She continued screaming, thrashing her small arms around. He took Lorna and headed to the kitchen. "Are you hungry?" he whispered as he turned on the kitchen light, illuminating the room. He tugged open the fridge door and retrieved a small bottle of milk. He placed it in the bottle warmer and set a short timer. While he waited, he gently rocked Lorna. Unfortunately, her cries didn't die down. He looked around the apartment, which Clank very kindly gave to him and Angela shortly after they got engaged and realised that they would soon need to buy a house. Although this apartment was fine with a baby, it would be more difficult as she grew up, especially if he and Angela decided to have more children.

He would have to think about that one. Ratchet and Angela had always wanted kids, and had agreed on three, but they started their family much sooner than they expected. With Ratchet being 23 and Angela 25, they were a little younger than they had planned, and decided it would be best to wait a few more years before trying to have another. But Ratchet was happy being a younger parent, as was Angela. Angela had been working at MegaCorp for the last six years. As far as she was concerned, her job was safe, especially as she was a highly-valued employee. Ratchet, being self-employed and generally relaxed about everything, wasn't worried about work either.

His thoughts were interrupted by the _ping_ of the bottle warmer. He retrieved the bottle, and quickly tested the milk to ensure it wasn't too hot for Lorna. Satisfied with its temperature, he then put the bottle in the baby lombax's mouth, which she drank from greedily. "Slow down, you'll make yourself sick," he whispered to the baby. The thought of cleaning up vomit at this time of night made him shudder in disgust. Lorna steadily drained the bottle, and settled down, her eyelids getting heavier and threatening to close. "Oh no you don't," Ratchet said as he put the bottle down and lifted her upright, "you are not falling asleep on me." He gently patted her back, and she gave off a surprisingly loud belch which reverberated around the kitchen.

"Nice one," he chuckled, walking back to the bedroom, turning off the kitchen light as he did so. He crept into the bedroom, making sure not to wake Angela. He darted across to Lorna's crib, and gently placed her inside, covering her up with her tiny blanket. He lingered at the crib, watching the little lombax drift off, feeling his face involuntarily stretch into a grin. When he satisfied she had fallen asleep, he got back into bed, sighing as he started up at the ceiling. Life was good.

"I heard you out there," Angela mumbled sleepily. "That is one noisy baby."

Ratchet laughed. "She did good."

"Don't encourage her."

* * *

 **Two years later...**

"Daddy! Look!" a two-year-old Lorna chirped as she tottered over with a piece of paper, a drawing, no doubt.

"Let me see," Ratchet said warmly, scooping her up and placing her on his lap. Eagerly, she waved her masterpiece in front of her father's face, to which he grabbed it so he could take a closer look. Upon closer inspection, Lorna's 'drawing' was nothing more than some weird squiggly lines etched in crayon. She was hardly Picasso.

"What's that you've got there?" Angela asked from across the room, looking up from the workbag she was packing. Ratchet lifted the piece of paper up for Angela's viewing. Her eyes trained on the pathetic excuse of a drawing. "That's really good, Lorna!" she beamed, as she walked over to the armchair her husband and daughter were sat on and crouched so she was eye-level to the little lombax. Angela ruffled the toddler's hair, which was shoulder-length and starting to get curly, like her mother's. She looked up at Ratchet, who was grinning stupidly. "What?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ratchet wiggled the paper, and mouthed, _It's crap._

Angela shook her head and laughed. She mouthed back, _I know_ , but still felt obliged to put it on the fridge. She took the squigglefest from Ratchet and walked to the kitchen. Using a fridge magnet, she attached the picture to the fridge. _What is it even supposed to be?_ she wondered. _A grind rail?_ She had no idea what Lorna was going to be when she grew up, but Angela definitely knew she wasn't going to be an artist. She turned back, leaning against a kitchen counter and folding her arms. Smiling as she watched, she always enjoyed observing father and daughter interact, especially now. Given that Lorna was sat on his lap, she was essentially his 'tickle prisoner', the tiny lombax squealing and wiggling while the older one laughed, dodging thrashing and flailing limbs.

"Alright then," Angela said as she slung the strap of her workbag over her shoulder. "I had better get going." She walked over to the armchair and bent over to receive a kiss from her beau. Moving onto her daughter, Angela crouched down to a level where she could easily view the toddler. "You be good for Daddy now, okay?" she said.

The infant lombax looked up at her mother, grinning a tiny-toothed smile. "Okay."

Angela gently pressed her forehead against Lorna's before pulling away and straightening up. As she walked towards the door, she heard Ratchet's voice pipe up:

"Lorna, say, 'Bye-bye Mommy'."

"Bye-bye Mommy!"

Angela turned around to see the pair of them waving at her. She gave a small wave back before vanishing through the door, which slid down and shut behind her.

"So," Ratchet said, his face being held by his daughter's tiny hands, "what do you want to do today?"

The little lombax froze, her emerald eyes widening with sheer excitement. "Park!" she shrieked.

* * *

The public play area in Megapolis was hardly a park. Given the city's distinct lack of vegetation, the space was a large, circular space of white panelling, matching the rest of the city's monochrome look, with a few climbing frames, slides, and swings. Ratchet, given his more vibrant and colourful upbringing in Veldin, didn't think much of the space. After all, you couldn't really call it a park in the traditional sense. It was too artificial. Yet Lorna seemed to adore it.

As soon as she spied the playground, she attempted to sprint towards it, only to be halted by the harness she was strapped into. The last thing Ratchet needed was for Lorna to run off, either into oncoming traffic, or to tumble off the edge of the sidewalks of the elevated city, the latter concern originating from Ratchet's own personal experience. While shooting, jumping, and flipping his way through the city searching for Clank, he had very nearly leapt off the ledges, only to land and wind himself on the railings, luckily. If a grown man could nearly fall into the misty depths below, he certainly would not put it past a toddler to do so, hence the harness use.

Thankfully, the rudimentary railings seen throughout the city were replaced with a six-foot-high chain-link fence in this play area, putting many parents at ease, Ratchet included. He unclipped the harness from Lorna's torso, and with a squeal of joy, she trotted over to the swings, Ratchet following behind with a light jog.

The lombax toddler's first activity of the day: the swings. Standing near one of the posts, she spun around and hopped on the spot, eagerly awaiting her father's approach. As he drew nearer, she lifted her arms up, awaiting to be picked up.

"You want to go on the swings?" Ratchet asked. He interpreted his daughter's ecstatic nod as a 'yes'. With a small grunt, and noticing she was getting heavier, he hoisted his daughter up and placed her in the swing. Unable to contain her excitement, Lorna began kicking her tiny legs, telling her father to push her. Chuckling to himself, he complied.

"Higher!" she squealed, clinging to the chains of the swing for dear life. Ratchet noticed she was terrified, yet she was also loving it. He laughed to himself. _Yep_ , he thought, _that's my kid alright_. He continued pushing his daughter, while scanning his surroundings. Nearby, there were other parents, some robot, some organic, supervising their children while they played. The usual hover ship traffic was zooming around at various altitudes. As if he was witnessing his own private joke, he grinned to himself upon noticing a learner pilot stall the ship, holding up the traffic behind them. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But there was something else that had caught Ratchet's attention. He recognised it instantly: the slender head, the spider-like legs, the blue paintjob, the arm with chainsaw blades affixed to it. Even looking at them caused Ratchet to recall the burning sensation on his side, remembering the agony caused by the blades tearing into his flesh. Nanotech healed those wounds, but the memory remained. But he couldn't believe what he was seeing, even after all these years.

It was a MegaCorp Security Robot - the chainsaw model. Those were used exclusively by private corporations, yet here it was, wandering in public. Other parents stopped what they were doing to stare at the hostile-looking robot, which stared back. Unlike Ratchet, they had no idea how much damage it could cause with a single, lightning-fast swing of its chainsaw arm. Lorna swung back into Ratchet's hands, giving him the perfect opportunity to halt her and the swing.

"Daddy, why stop?" she asked quietly. She wanted to swing and did not understand why her fun had been cut short.

No one in the park dared move a muscle. And then the machine moved, its spindly legs clanking on the panel flooring, approaching a child and parent near the monkey bars. As it drew closer, Ratchet spied the torque of the blades gradually increase. He knew what was happening.

Quickly instructing Lorna to stay put in the swing, Ratchet began his sprint towards the pair by the monkey bars. With each footstep, time seemed to slow down immensely. The MSR clattered closer, lifting its arm in preparation to swing, the parent and child unsure of why this strange being was approaching them. It was agonising. Finally close enough to intervene, Ratchet launched himself at the parent and child, pushing them out of harm's way. Like a hot knife through butter, the MSR's blades cut straight through the metal support of the monkey bars. They collapsed with a cacophony of sound.

Without wasting a precious second, Ratchet sprung to his feet, producing his trusty Obsidian Blade from his Dreadzone days. With a loud grunt, he swung as hard as he could, watching the blade connect with the MSR's head, caving it in. The robot collapsed like a sack of flour, its head rolling off its neck, drawing to a halt at Ratchet's feet. He turned to the parent and child, apparently of the same species of MegaCorp CEO Abercrombie Fizzwidget, who were still on the ground, unable to process what they had just witnessed.

Extending a hand to help them up, Ratchet asked, "Are you okay?"

"We're fine," the mother replied, pulling her son closer to her. "Thank you, I had no idea what that thing was going to do."

"I've had run-ins with them before," Ratchet replied, dusting himself off as he talked. "They can be quite nasty."

The little boy, who was no older than ten, piped up. "What are those things?"

"MegaCorp Security Robots. Private security, they shouldn't be out here."

Ratchet's musings were cut short by the piercing shriek of Lorna. "Daddy! Help!"

His eyes snapped over to his daughter, who was helplessly dangling in the swing while another MSR dashed up towards her. Without hesitation, he sprinted back to the swing set, fear clutching his heart as the hostile drew closer. As he neared the MSR, he sprung into the air, and landed a hyperstrike on the robot, slicing into it from its left shoulder into the middle of its torso. Its orange optics died, and the hunk of metal remained inert, in a slumped standing position.

Not wasting a second, Ratchet lifted a now-crying Lorna from the swing, who clung to her father for dear life.

"It was a monster!" she bawled, burying her head into Ratchet's chest.

"Shh," he whispered soothingly, rocking Lorna slightly. "I won't let the monsters get you." Her bawling died down into quiet whimpering, which Ratchet fished out his communicator screen, which was buzzing in his pocket. As the screen increased its size, Angela's anxious face appeared on it.

"Ang! You won't believe what just happ-"

"Ratchet, MegaCorp has gone into lockdown."

Ratchet's brow furrowed in confusion. "What? Why?"

"Someone gave the 'okay' for a new series of MegaCorp Security Robots to be released for private use, but they've gone rogue. They think someone within MegaCorp tampered with them, and now they're a threat to the public."

"I know..." Ratchet said, gesturing to the trashed remains of one of the models behind him. "I had to take care of a couple myself."

Angela's worried expression was replaced with an angrier one upon noticing and registering Lorna huddled against Ratchet's chest. "If anything happens to her..." she said menacingly, her maternal protectiveness shining through. Ratchet didn't say anything, which softened her expression instantly. "She's with you," Angela corrected herself. "There's no one I would trust with her more. Just... be careful."

"Of course," he replied quietly, holding his daughter closer to him. And with that, Angela cut the call.

 _What is going on?_ Ratchet thought.

* * *

 **Well, here it is, finally! It's been a month, and I've been tweaking _Reflection_ and fleshing out its chapters, while also having some slight writer's block with this, but I finally got there. I hope it's as good as you were expecting, and I have high hopes for this story. Let me know what you think, and in the meantime, check out _Reflection_ and its revisions (edited chapters are indicated right at the start), and keep your eyes peeled for the prequel story surrounding Ratchet and Sasha at some point (maybe, hopefully, I'm around the halfway mark). **

**Until next time!**

 **~TWRSB**


	2. MSR Warfare

_**The Father And The Daughter**_ **\- Chapter 2 - MSR Warfare**

The useful feature of the toddler harness is that it would attach to the harness Ratchet wore, so Lorna could ride on his back if necessary. It would definitely come in handy now, especially as Lorna's tiny legs would likely slow the pair down. It was almost like having Clank with him again, except Lorna was facing forward and was heavier than his robotic companion. She didn't have a heli-pack installed either, which would cause some problems if Ratchet needed to make long jumps.

For now, Ratchet needed to head home to access his super-secure (and toddler-proof) stash of Gadgetron, MegaCorp, and Vox Industries weapons. Four years' worth of weapon accumulation, and he had quite the collection. He rarely used old weapons, as newer and more powerful models were always being released, but ever since he became a father, his brief stint as an intergalactic hero had ended, and he had no need to buy any new weapons.

Until now. But this time, he couldn't afford any, considering he had spent the last two years raising a child. He was skint.

As he entered the apartment, he placed Lorna into her playpen before throwing his wrench onto the kitchen counter. She took an immediate interest in the set of large plastic keys. Watching her father disappear into his bedroom, she began chewing them. She liked chewing things, and Ratchet and Angela had spent the last year trying to break her habit of chewing her sleeves, with little success.

Ratchet marched over to his wardrobe and tugged the doors open. Given the limited storage space within the apartment, and the small child tottering about, he couldn't display his weapons on a large display wall. Instead, they stayed contained within their small inventory units, which conveniently kept the weapons at a size that allowed their user to carry them on their person. It was known as the Quick Select, and Ratchet had four of them, all of which he urgently needed to re-organise.

The first was one he acquired upon receiving a free Gadgetron Bomb Glove when he was seventeen. It was the Gadgetron Quick Select V20.02, which allowed the user to store eight weapons on a single ring. The second was from his employment as a MegaCorp Commando: the MegaCorp Quick Select Beta. This prototype was the first in MegaCorp's venture into convenient weapon transportation, and only stored eight weapons too. It was a shameless copy of Gadgetron's design, but the company's dwindling presence in the Bogan Galaxy meant that MegaCorp could do whatever they wanted without fear of a lawsuit. The third Quick Select Ratchet owned was the Gadgetron Quick Select V20.04 and allowed its user to store sixteen weapons across two rings. The fourth was the Vox Industries Quick Select, which also had sixteen slots on two pages, but was not customisable. The other downside was that it was attached to Ratchet's battle suit, and there was absolutely no chance he was wearing that again. He couldn't breathe within that suit, and his tail... well, it ended up somewhere very uncomfortable.

Without further ado, he emptied all four Quick Selects onto his bed, and began the painful process of deciding on sixteen weapons for containment within the Quick Select V20.04.

* * *

Lorna had long gotten bored of chewing on the plastic keys and decided she would try to escape the playpen instead. Its brightly-coloured plastic walls reached neck height on the infant lombax, which she viewed as a worthy challenge. She pulled herself to her feet and studied the gate. It was fastened by a simple latch on the outside of the playpen. However, the latch was beyond Lorna's grasp if she tried to reach over the top of the gate, much to her frustration.

She moved over to the edge of the gate, where it connected to another panel, and studied it. The two panels were connected by a couple of large bolts. She tried twisting one of them, but it didn't budge. Her tiny little fingers were too weak to twist the bolt and she couldn't get a good grip on it either. Something inside her told her she would need some kind of tool, one that would fit into the slot in the head of the bolt. Lorna turned around and spied the different toys in the playpen, wondering if there would be anything that would fit.

Then she saw it: the saliva-coated set of giant plastic keys, each key decorated with multiple, tiny teeth marks. She waddled over to them, nearly tripping over a wooden abacus, and scooped them up. Without wasting a second, Lorna dashed back up to the gate, and got to work.

* * *

Ratchet had finally decided on his equipment, tidying everything else away and placing it in his wardrobe safely and securely. As he was clipping his Quick Select onto his belt, he heard the bedroom door creak open. Upon hearing the sound, his brow furrowed in bewilderment.

 _What the?_

And then he looked down.

"Daddy?" a tiny voice squeaked, its owner cautiously squeezing her way past the door.

"Lorna?" he responded, confused. "I thought you were in the playpen?" He walked over to her and crouched down to her level. "How did you get out?"

Guiltily, she produced the plastic keys she used to escape, showing Ratchet and perplexing him further. The playpen didn't have a cylinder lock, let alone one that would work with toy keys, especially ones as gross as the set his daughter clutched in her small hand. He picked Lorna up and walked back into the living room. His eyes fell on the partially dismantled playpen, its gate barely hanging on, with the two bolts littered on the ground near it.

Ratchet felt a grin grow on his face. "You're a clever little girl," he praised, causing Lorna's worried expression to be replaced by a proud beam. Ratchet was surprised to find that a lombax's natural ability for tinkering developed at this young an age. But there was no time to waste. He lifted her over his head, placing her on his back, the toddler facing forward, the fastening on her harness connecting to his with a solid _click_. He grabbed his wrench off the kitchen counter. While checking that Lorna was securely fastened to him, he heard his pocket communicator beep.

He fished it out, where its screen expanded. Angela's face appeared on it.

"Hey Angela," Ratchet chimed, folding his arms. Lorna peered from behind his ears, noticed her mother, and waved excitedly.

"Hey guys," she said wearily, using one hand to pinch her brow. She was clearly very stressed.

"What's wrong?" Ratchet asked, his ears drooping slightly with apprehension.

"The lockdown," she said grumpily. "There's a high chance I won't be coming home tonight. Or tomorrow night. Or the night after that."

Ratchet's face dropped in surprise. "Why not?"

"They're not letting anyone leave, regardless of whether they have families or not." She sighed sadly before continuing. "There are some single parents here who are freaking out, yet they're not allowed to leave."

"Because?"

She scowled slightly. "Because their children are alone? It's kind of obv-"

Ratchet shook his head frantically. "No, I mean, why aren't they letting anyone go?"

Angela slapped her forehead, irritated with the miscommunication. "They won't say, but my guess is that they're trying to find a specific individual within HQ. And until they do, no one gets in, and no one leaves."

"Yikes, that bites," Ratchet murmured, rubbing his head. "Is there anything we can do?"

She shook her head. "I'm hearing a lot of reports on the MSRs running loose on certain planets. I'm guessing that you're planning on stopping this threat." Ratchet nodded. "Then I'll let you know if something comes up."

Nodding, Ratchet said, "Okay."

"Please keep Lorna safe."

"Of course I will."

And with that, Angela disconnected the call. The communicator shrunk, allowing Ratchet to pocket it.

"Daddy, where are we going?" Lorna asked clumsily, her speech slurred by her inarticulate infant tongue.

"On a little adventure," he murmured while leaving the apartment. His mind was elsewhere: he wasn't so sure that bringing Lorna along would be the safest thing for either of them.

"Where?" she asked, pulling on one of his ears, inspecting its orange stripes.

"Across the galaxy," he replied, still pondering. Would Lorna be safer with anyone else? Probably not. And if Ratchet couldn't protect his daughter, what kind of father was he? He scowled slightly as he thought. It wouldn't come to that. He wouldn't allow it. But before he set off with the toddler in tow, he needed to discuss a few things. In a single, fluid motion, he reached over his head, unclipped Lorna from his harness, pulled her over his head, rotated her and finally placed her on the ground, crouching on one knee to talk to her at her level.

"Lorna," Ratchet said sternly, his tone of voice instantly gaining her attention. She stared at him with wide, green eyes, waiting for him to continue. "This is going to be really dangerous and you shouldn't really be coming with me."

"But I am!" she chirped, her ears perking up in excitement. Ratchet couldn't help but crack a smile at the kid's enthusiasm. He could tell she was going to be the ultimate adventurer when she grew up, while being more alert, agile than Ratchet was when he started his own hero work. And something deep down was telling him that she would enjoy it more than he ever could, which he couldn't even begin to comprehend; he loved what he did. She was a born adventurer and he couldn't wait to watch her grow into that danger-loving adult while simultaneously dealing with Angela constantly fretting.

"Okay, you are," Ratchet said, fighting to mask the laughter creeping into his voice. "But you are to do everything I tell you to. You don't question it, you do exactly as you're told, okay?"

"Okay!"

"That's my girl."

Ratchet scooped his daughter up into his arms, climbing back up to his feet as he did so. It was go-time.

* * *

As Ratchet landed his ship in the parking lot near the city centre, he watched the chaos unfold. While Ratchet only had two MegaCorp Security Robots to deal with in the park, he now had a much larger challenge on his hands. He watched dozens of unarmed, defenceless civilians run away from various MSR models, screaming. In the distance, an apprentice plumber, no older than twenty, dodged a swing from the chainsaw arm of an MSR, before retaliating by heaving her wrench at the attacker, burying it deep into its cranium and stopping it dead in its tracks. It twitched slightly, before going still.

Grinning smugly as she did so, she yanked the wrench out of the MSR's head, retrieving her weapon. Unbeknownst to her, there was another MSR - a flamethrower model - creeping up behind her, the end of its flamethrower arm lit up with a faint glow. Without a moment of hesitation, Ratchet popped the cockpit of his MegaCorp-issued ship and leapt out onto its wing.

"Move!" he yelled, aiming a single Dual Viper and unleashing a quick burst of fire as the plumber dove to the ground. The shots made contact with the flamethrower arm, tearing it off the robot. It looked down at the jagged metal near its shoulder, processing that its primary armament had been incapacitated. Before it could complete its processing, another Viper round tore its head clean off its shoulders. It bounced three times, ringing out with a hollow _clang_ , before slowly rolling to a halt.

Except the head stopped at the spidery legs of three more Security Robots: two chainsaw models and one other model, a variety Ratchet was unfamiliar with, the green paintwork doing little to aid Ratchet in identifying its main attack.

The two chainsaw models quickened their pace, simultaneously converging onto their target: the Lombax himself. He sprung off the ship's wing, landing silently. The cockpit closed behind him, safely sealing Lorna inside. Quickly holstering his Viper, he knew these were tight quarters. Knowing he would not have the time or the space to aim, he selected a weapon that would do the hard work for him: the Seeker Gun. Holding its grip felt pleasantly familiar, as if he and the weapon were a single entity.

He pulled the trigger and watched the seeker round float straight towards one of the chainsaw models, burying itself into its chest and detonating, taking the other chainsaw model out.

In the brief moment he had made for himself by taking out some of his opposition, Ratchet retrieved Lorna from the ship and clipped her to his back. Something told him that right now it wouldn't be the safest option to leave his daughter in the ship, a tiny voice in the back of his head suggested that this particular MSR model had something nasty up its metaphorical sleeve.

The voice was right. The green-painted MSR launched a round projectile towards Ratchet, who leapt off his ship without hesitation. Expecting a large explosion upon impact, the lombax ran fast to put as much distance between himself and his daughter and his MegaCorp-issued ship. The ball hit the ship but the way it reacted was far from what Ratchet was anticipating.

As the ball-projectile made contact with the ship, it tore open, spraying acid everywhere. The acid ate into the ship, causing it to crumple to the ground like a tin can in mere seconds.

 _Nasty_ , Ratchet thought, watching the MSR turn towards him, poised to attack again. "Uh-oh," he uttered before cocking his Seeker Gun. "I'd like to stay for a second round," he said, "but the missus wants me home." He pulled the trigger, releasing the seeking missile. Lorna watched, wide-eyed and fearful, as it flew into the 'monster' and detonated, spraying bits of metal a few feet from where it stood. At that was left was a scorch mark on the ground.

Ratchet lowered his weapon and stopped to catch his breath. That had been a little too close for his liking. As he gazed helplessly at the corroded remains of his ship, he couldn't help but wonder what he was supposed to do now. It was like Novalis all over again, except instead of Clank on his back, he had a terrified toddler snotting on his shoulder.

He unclipped Lorna and held her close to his chest. "Shh," he whispered reassuringly. "Daddy's got you, nothing's going to get you."

"No monsters?" she sniffed, snot dribbling from her nose.

"No monsters," he confirmed, retrieving a tissue from his pocket and wiping her small, feline nose.

 _Now what?_ he thought. He couldn't go anywhere else without a ship and decided that would be his next objective. Preferably something resistant to acid.

* * *

 **So I've finally written chapter 2 (it's been ages I'm so sorry). I've been busy with life, working, moving, and all that jazz. So we're at 5 favourites and 7 follows, which is _amazing_! Thank you so much!**

 **Like the MegaCorp Quick Select Beta being a blatant rip-off of the Gadgetron Quick Select V20.02, I realise that my explanation of how Quick Selects work is *borrowed* from RevenantReaper337's _Time Heals All_. It's an idea that works really well and I am so sorry. Normally I'd use Clank to store the weapons (remember where he stores the Hydrodisplacer and all the infobots?) but obviously you can't do that with a toddler funnily enough. On that note, it's a really sweet OC-insert cover of the first _Ratchet & Clank_. It's a long read but it's definitely worth checking out.**

 **It might be like 50 years until the next chapter, but I'll see you then!**

 **~TWRSB**


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